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Self-Concept

Self-concept, a sense of one’s identity and

personal worth, emerges gradually around 6 months.

Around 15-18 months, children can recognize themselves in the mirror. By 8-10

years, their self-image is stable.

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Child-Rearing Practices

Practice Description

AuthoritarianParents impose rules and

expect obedience.

PermissiveParents submit to children’s

demands.

AuthoritativeParents are demanding but responsive to their children.

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Authoritative Parenting

Authoritative parenting correlates with social competence — other factors like

common genes may lead to an easy-going temperament and may invoke an

authoritative parenting style.

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Adolescence

Many psychologists once believed that our traits were set during childhood.

Today psychologists believe that

development is a lifelong process. Adolescence is defined as a life

between childhood and adulthood.

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Physical Development

Adolescence begins with puberty (sexual maturation). Puberty

occurs earlier in females (11 years) than males (13

years). Thus height in females increases

before males.

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Primary Sexual Characteristics

During puberty primary sexual characteristics — the reproductive organs and external genitalia — develop rapidly.

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Secondary Sexual Characteristics

Also secondary sexual characteristics—the nonreproductive traits such as breasts and

hips in girls and facial hair and deepening of voice in boys develop. Pubic hair and armpit

hair grow in both sexes.

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Brain Development

Until puberty, neurons increase their connections. However, at adolescence,

selective pruning of the neurons begins. Unused neuronal connections are lost to

make other pathways more efficient.

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Frontal Cortex

During adolescence, neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin, which speeds up nerve conduction. The frontal cortex lags behind

the limbic system’s development. Hormonal surges and the limbic system may explain

occasional teen impulsiveness.

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Cognitive Development

Adolescents’ ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness. In

particular, they may think about the following:

1. Their own thinking.2. What others are thinking.3. What others are thinking about

them.4. How ideals can be reached. They

criticize society, parents, and even themselves.

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Developing Reasoning Power

According to Piaget, adolescents can handle abstract problems, i.e., they can perform formal operations. Adolescents can judge

good from evil, truth and justice, and think about God in deeper terms.

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Developing Morality

Kohlberg (1981, 1984) sought to describe the development of moral reasoning by posing moral dilemmas to children and adolescents, such as “Should a person

steal medicine to save a loved one’s life?” He found stages of moral development.

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Moral Thinking

1. Preconventional Morality: Before age 9, children show morality to avoid punishment or gain reward.

2. Conventional Morality: By early adolescence, social rules and laws are upheld for their own sake.

3. Postconventional Morality: Affirms people’s agreed-upon rights or follows personally perceived ethical principles.

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Moral Feeling

Moral feeling is more than moral thinking. When posed with simulated moral

dilemmas, the brain’s emotional areas only light up when the nature of the dilemmas

is emotion-driven.

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Moral Action

Moral action involves doing the right thing. People who engage in doing the right thing

develop empathy for others and the self-discipline to resist their own impulses.

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Social Development

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Forming an Identity

In Western cultures, many adolescents try out different selves before settling into a

consistent and comfortable identity. Having such an identity leads to forming

close relationships.

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Parent and Peer Influence

Although teens become independent of their parents as

they grow older, they nevertheless relate

to their parents on a number of things,

including religiosity and career choices. Peer approval and relationships are

also very important.

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Emerging Adulthood

Emerging adulthood spans ages 18-25. During this time, young adults may live with their parents and attend college or

work. On average, emerging adults marry in their mid-twenties.

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Adulthood

Although adulthood begins sometime after

a person’s mid-twenties, defining

adulthood into stages is more difficult than

defining stages during childhood or adolescence.

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Physical Development

The peak of physical performance occurs around 20 years of age, after which it declines imperceptibly for most of us.

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Middle Adulthood

Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac output begin to decline

after the mid-twenties. Around age 50, women go through menopause, and men experience decreased levels of hormones

and fertility.

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Old Age: Life Expectancy

Life expectancy at birth increased from 49% in 1950 to 67% in 2004 and to 80% in developed countries. Women outlive men

and outnumber them at most ages.

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Old Age: Sensory Abilities

After age 70, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell diminish, as do muscle strength, reaction time, and

stamina. After 80, neural processes slow down, especially for complex tasks.

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Old Age: Motor Abilities

At age 70, our motor abilities also decline. A 70-year-old is no match for a 20-year-old

individual. Fatal accidents also increase around this age.

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Old Age: Dementia

With increasing age, the risk of dementia also increases. Dementia is not a normal

part of growing old.

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Old Age: Alzheimer’s DiseaseThe risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease also increases with age. Individuals who are

in the early stages of this disease show more MRI activity in the brain than do

normal individuals of the same age.

At risk Alzheimer Normal

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Cognitive Development

Do cognitive abilities like memory, creativity, and intelligence decline with age

the same way physical abilities do?

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Aging and Memory

As we age, we remember some

things well. These include recent past events and events that happened a decade or two

back. However, recalling names

becomes increasingly

difficult.

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Aging and Memory

Recognition memory does not decline with age, and material that is meaningful is

recalled better than meaningless material. The same is true for prospective memory

(remember to …).

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Aging and Intelligence

Longitudinal studies suggest that

intelligence remains relative as we age. It is believed today that

fluid intelligence (ability to reason speedily) declines

with age, but crystalline intelligence

(accumulated knowledge and skills)

does not.

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Aging and Other Abilities

A number of cognitive abilities decline with age.

However, vocabulary and

general knowledge increase with age.

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Social Development

Many differences between the young and old are not simply based on physical and

cognitive abilities, but may instead be based on life events associated with family,

relationships, and work.

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Adulthood’s Ages and Stages

Psychologists doubt that adults pass through an orderly sequence

of age-bound stages. Mid-life crises at 40 are

less likely to occur than crises

triggered by major events (divorce, new marriage).

Neuroticism scores, 10,000 subjects(McCrae & Costa, 1996).

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Adulthood’s Commitments

Love and work are defining themes in adult life. Evolutionary psychologists believe that

commitment has survival value. Parents that stay together are likely to leave a

viable future generation.

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Adulthood’s Commitments

Happiness stems from working in a job that fits your interests and provides you with a sense of competence and accomplishment.

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Well-Being Across the Life Span

Well-being and people’s feelings of satisfaction are stable across the life span.

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Successful Aging

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Death and Dying

There is no “normal” reaction or series of grief stages after the death of a loved one. Grief is more sudden

if death occurs unexpectedly. People who reach a sense of

integrity in life (in Erikson’s terms) see

life as meaningful and worthwhile.

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Developmental Issues

Researchers who view development as a slow, continuous process are generally those who emphasize experience and

learning. Biologists, on the other hand, view maturation and development as a

series of genetically predisposed steps or stages. These include psychologists like

Piaget, Kohlberg and Erikson.

Continuity and Stages

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Developmental Issues

Lifelong development requires both stability and change. Personality gradually

stabilizes as people age. However, this does not mean that our traits do not

change over a lifetime. Some temperaments are more stable than

others.

Stability and Change